Thank you to EVERYONE who voted on my designs in the Dell Make It Yours Competition. I am sooo excited to announce that thanks to your votes, all three of my designs made it to the top 25 most voted designs in the competition which meant all three were eligible for judging.

Not only did ‘Not Your Ordinary Coaster’ have the most votes, but it was judged as the most creative entry in the top 25. This means that I won the main prize and the person with the second most votes would have won the voting prize. There was also a runner up prize. I have not heard who won the other two prizes as yet, but I will be sure to post it once I find out.

What did I win? I am so totally excited that I have won such a cool prize!!!


I won a Dell Studio Laptop with my winning Design on it! How cool does it look, especially in the arms of this hunk! I also won a cash prize, some of which I will be using to upgrade my desktop to a new DELL!

There have been some comments as to why some designs were removed from the competition gallery, several of which were on the first couple of pages. It is my understanding that there were voting restrictions and some entries were disqualified due to vote rigging. I was assured by Dell over the phone that not only was my design legitimately the one with the most votes, but voted the most creative independantly of the votes by judging panel who did not know how many votes each entry had.

The judging panel chose my design because it ‘was a great reflection of today’s offices environments’. (I am paraphrasing because I forgot the exact words) The design is VERY me, because I am ALWAYS spilling my coffee and have ruined a number of keyboards doing so! LOL Never on my Dell laptop tho!

For those of you who have wondered or were speculating… I created the design using my own hand created brushes. Those coffee stains were hand created by me. The texture of the background was created by me in photoshop with the help of my own collection of hand made photoshop brushes, blend modes and the creative process.  It is a shame some people saw fit to insult my design and Dell’s handling of the competition. From my perspective they have been entirely professional throughout even disqualifying entries that received votes in an unfair manner.

All of my votes were made by friends and family and members of the digital scrapbooking community. I did a lot of promoting of the competition and all of my votes were genuine.

Thanks again to everyone who voted to me. Despite the negative comments I have managed to receive, I have also had a lot of support and that and such a fantastic prize has made this a fantastic experience!

Most of all, I need to thank Dell, for holding the competition and for your generous prizes!